A day after Flipkart exited from the Airtel Zero platform, Cleartrip, NDTV, Newshunt and the Times Group announced that they are stepping away from Facebook’s internet.org initiative today.

The Times Group will be pulling out TimesJobs and Maharashtra Times from Internet.org, and has committed to withdraw from internet.org if its direct competitors – India Today, NDTV, IBNLive, NewsHunt, and BBC – also pull out.

NDTV is committed to net neutrality and is therefore exiting, and will not be a part of, Facebook's http://t.co/r3IZLs9qEJ initiative.

Prannoy Roy, Co-Founder and Executive Co-Chairperson, NDTV tweeted out that his company is also committed to net neutrality and is therefore exiting from the internet.org initiative.

Launched as an initiative to improve internet access, Internet.org is a partnership the partnership between Facebook and seven mobile phone companies, the initiative has been launched in eight countries including India since August 2013.

Facebook partnered with Reliance Communications to launch the app in India in February, the list of services on internet.org, which provides internet access to a limited portion of the internet for free, included a total of 37 websites or apps other than Facebook.

Cleartrip posted on their blog that they had withdrawn their association with internet.org entirely, saying that it was against their core DNA, and that was impossible to pretend there is no conflict of interest.

“In the case of the group's properties such as TimesJobs and Maharashtra Times, where its competitors are not on zero-rate platforms, these properties will pull out of internet.org. As for the Times of India itself, the group commits to withdraw from internet.org if its direct competitors - India Today, NDTV, IBNLive, NewsHunt, and BBC - also pull out. The group also encourages its fellow language and English news publishers - Dainik Jagran, Aaj Tak, Amar Ujala, Maalai Malar, Reuters, and Cricinfo - to join the campaign for net neutrality and withdraw from zero rate schemes.”

"A few weeks back, Facebook reached out and asked us to participate in the Internet.org initiative with the intention of helping us deliver one of our most affordable products to the more underserved parts of the country. There was no revenue arrangement between us and Internet.org or any of its participants — we were neither paid anything, nor did we pay anything to participate. Additionally we don't make any money out of that product. Since there was absolutely zero money changing hands, we genuinely believed we were contributing to a social cause.

But the recent debate around #NetNeutrality gave us pause to rethink our approach to Internet.org and the idea of large corporations getting involved with picking and choosing who gets access to what and how fast. What started off with providing a simple search service has us now concerned with influencing customer decision-making by forcing options on them, something that is against our core DNA.

So while our original intent was noble, it is impossible to pretend there is no conflict of interest (both real and perceived) in our decision to be a participant in Internet.org. In light of this, Cleartrip has withdrawn our association with and participation in Internet.org entirely.

We believe that the Internet is a great leveller and that freedom of the Internet is critical for innovation. Cleartrip is and always will be a fully committed supporter of #NetNeutrality."